Surprise Package From Northrop Grumman

Imagine my surprise today when I got a Fedex(?) shipment from Northrop Grumman.

In it was a note, "Hello Michael - I found this while cleaning out Louise's office...How are you? I hopeyou you're doing well. Pat Moore".

Thank you, Pat!

Enclosed was a acrylic award with engraving (below my name)

"In recognition of recognition of 33 years of service - Northrop Grumman".

The packaging showed this printed message:

Michael Jue

33

Years of Service

Your significant contributions have help make Northrop Grumman a leader in our industry.

We thank you for your loyalty,, dedication, and commitment.

Congratulions and best wishes on your retirement.

Surprise: receiving this thing unexpectedly in an untimely manner.

NOT a surprise: receiving this thing unexpectedly in an untimely manner. See what I wrote about my last day at Northrop Grumman.

Once an person is no longer an employee of Northrop Grumman, it SEEMS that the now former employee then becomes irrelevant.

What do you think?

Five tips for preventing user screw-ups | Five Tips | TechRepublic.com

Five tips for preventing user screw-ups | Five Tips | TechRepublic.com

What do you think?

Northrop Grumman hires such INTELLIGENT employees that management does not believe that the users need any training to use its IT systems.

14 Ways to Expand Your Influence - by Dumb Little Man

14 Ways to Expand Your Influence - by Dumb Little Man

Here's a question: How many of the managers at Northrop Grumman have "influence"?

Take a look at these "14 Ways to Expand Your Influence" in this blog.

1. Understand It

2. Be a Person of Integrity and of Values

3. Be Authentic and Transparent

4. Accept Responsibility

5. Be a Solution Seeker

6. Be Proactive

7. Practice Empathy

8. Appreciate & Recognize Others

9. Respond vs React

10. Bring Out the Best in Others

11. Practice the Golden Rule

12. Be a Giver

13. Go Above and Beyond

14. Have Vision

10 surefire ways to kill morale | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

10 surefire ways to kill morale | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

Here's a list of ten things that supposedly "kill morale" - how many do you see at Northrop Grumman?

1: Punish desired behavior

2: Reward undesired behavior

3: Play favorites

4: Change direction early and often

5: Ignore the positives

6: Focus only on the negatives

7: Use questionable measurements

8: Fail to give credit

9: Micromanage

10. Freak out

Ten Signs of a Fear-Based Workplace - Yahoo! Finance

Ten Signs of a Fear-Based Workplace - Yahoo! Finance

Is Northrop Grumman a "Fear-Based Workplace"?

Look at the link for the article for more on the following ten signs:

1. Appearances are everything.

2. Everyone one is talking about who's rising and who's falling.

3. Distrust reigns.

4. Numbers rule.

5. And rules number in the thousands.

6. Management considers lateral communication suspect.

7. Information is hoarded.

8. Brown-nosers rule.

9. The Office evokes sad chuckles, rather than laughs.

10. Management leads by fear.

What do you think?

15 great leadership questions

See 15 great leadership questions.

How many of THESE questions has your manager EVER asked YOU?

At Northrop Grumman, many of the managers are sent to some kind of manager "charm school" to make them more "manager-like".

Unfortunately, being trained to be a good manager is NOT good training to be a good leader.

Take a look at these questions and think about how often your manager has asked you ANY of them.

(I am willing to bet that you won't be able to answer with more than ten, five, three, . . .)

1.”What can I do to make you more effective?”

2. What’s keeping you from falling asleep at night?

3. What one thing should I do more? (or one thing I should do less?)

4. What roadblocks are holding you back? (or preventing your projects from moving ahead?)

5. What’s the most important issue you are dealing with right now?

6. What do our competitors do better than us?

7. If you were in my job, what’s the first thing you would you do?

8. What do we do better than anyone else?

9. How can I improve your team’s productivity?

10. What are the two key behaviors of our leadership team?

11. What one thing can we do to make our weekly meeting more effective?

12. What are your top three goals for next month?

13. What’s waking you up at 3:00 in the morning?

14. When you think about our goals, what are we forgetting?

15. If I could do just one thing for you as a result of this discussion, what would it be?

Of course, Northrop Grumman managers are not paid or budgeted time to work with their employees in such a manner as asking employees a bunch of silly questions that would make the employees be more effective (as opposed to efficient) and that might make employees feel that the company values the employees as human being instead of faceless cogs in a some kind of machine.

Disclaimer: SORRY - This is only what I know from my point of view. No lies, just what I see as the truth.